Knowledge on ethical and legal responsibilities in the field of psychiatric nursing among staff nurses

Healthcare workers have a legal and ethical responsibility to protect their patients. Their responsibility is doing the right thing for the patient. The objective of the study were to assess the knowledge of staff nurses regarding ethical and legal responsibilities in the field of psychiatric nursing and to determine the association between the knowledge of staff nurses and selected baseline variables. The study was conducted in a selected hospital at Mangalore. A sample of 100 staff nurses were selected by convenience sampling technique for the study. A non-experimental descriptive survey approach was chosen for the study. The demographic data and the knowledge level were assessed using structured questionnaire. The findings of the study revealed that, 10% of subjects had good knowledge, 60% of subjects had average knowledge 20% of subject had poor knowledge and 10% of subjects had very poor knowledge regarding the ethical and legal responsibilities in the field of psychiatric nursing.